Now, I normally don't get political here on Geek In Gear, but watching the news this morning I just about blew my top when I heard President Bush is upset with the press about publishing a story about a secret operation to track terrorist's money (sorry, the link requires registration - just use Bug Me Not). There are even some congressmen that are calling for the staff members at the Times to be brought up on criminal charges. I have two initial responses to this travesty.

First is the logical part of me that says, "Hey, if the press found out about this program, then how much of a secret could it have been?" If the press found out about this secret bank monitoring, then what makes the President (and his cronies) think that foreign intelligence services (that funnel information to terrorist groups) would not be able to uncover this program with out reading about it in the Times? If you are not able to keep the lid on your own programs, then it's no one's fault other than your own. That would be like having one of my computer systems at work compromised by hackers and then blaming the researcher that found the flaw that was exploited for the attack. The complete and total lack of any personal responsibility that seems to keep growing in this country (and not just from the Government either) has me concerned about the fate of our once great nation.

Second, the journalist in me (and yes I can say I am a journalist - thanks Apple) is mortified that the government wants to censor the press. The canned response that in times of war that The Constitution should be ignored (the government spinsters use slightly less inflammatory wording - but that is what they really want to say) is crap. There is no war. Terrorism has always and will always exist. Its a fact of life. There is no way to please everyone in the world and there will always be psychopathic, bull-headed individuals that would rather turn to violence then be willing to compromise when someone pisses them off (and I am not just talking about terrorists - the governments of the world are just as bad). Declaring a "war" on terrorism is no excuse for ruining the freedoms and protections that Americans enjoy (and have died to protect). I think Ben Franklin (who knew a thing or two about governments overstepping their bounds) said it best, "Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither". Censoring the press is such a slippery slope. There is not much of a stretch from wanting to hide the fact that the government cannot conduct a "secret" operation with out screwing up, to wanting to hide reporting of losses and casualties in war or saying publicly criticizing the government undermines its ability to fight terrorism. Those examples may seem extreme, but they are all possible if the government is allowed to keep stealing our freedoms.

This is just one of many incidents of the government ignoring the Constitution and the law in the name of "fighting terrorism". (The NSA/ATT wiretapping incident is another, as is the so tragically named PATRIOT Act.) While I don't usually take a political stance myself or ask others to get involved with politics (I am a pretty easy going laid back person), I have to urge you, if you care about protecting your freedom, to join and/or support organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation or the American Civil Liberties Union that work to make sure our rights are protected and that our leaders stay the course that our founding fathers started when they penned The Constitution. I am not saying you have to agree with everything that they do (I personally don't) but these people are fighting the good fight on your behalf and they need our support. I am reminded of a quote I read in high school about the Holocaust. I don't remember who said it (I think it was a Christian church leader) or exactly how it was worded, but I will try and paraphrase it for you. "First they came for the mentally ill and we did nothing. Then they came for the Jews and we still did nothing. Finally they came for us and there was no one left to do anything." Please, do what you can to protect the Constitution now, before it's too late.

One last thing. Please use the comments if you would like to have a civilized discussion about this topic. If you just want to flame me and not offer anything to the conversation other than "u terrorist loving commie - bush is going to save us all - u suk", please keep it out of the comments (I still am more than happy to hear from you, just email me instead of cluttering the comments - john at geek in gear dot com).

Bush Says Report on Bank Data Was Disgraceful @ nytimes.com
Bank Data Is Sifted by U.S. in Secret to Block Terror @ nytimes.com

Join The Electronic Frontier Foundation
Join The American Civil Liberties Union

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